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Serving up a top quality cookery experience.

Welcome to Leeds Cookery School - a vibrant new cookery school offering a range of exclusive Chef-led cookery classes, demonstrations and courses in a bespoke training kitchen within a truly unique venue. Whether you’re a beginner or a kitchen pro, there’s something for everyone and a warm welcome from our team.

Wholesome and tasty lentil and squash pasties

The Best of British

Richard Setchfield

Richard Setchfield opened the doors in March 1979 at his Roundhay butchers shop, situated at 6 Roman View, just off Street Lane, Leeds . At 18 years of age it was a great opportunity to do it his way!
In the early years Richard was guided by his Dad, Bob Setchfield… a truly great master of the craft of shopkeeping, with a vast knowledge of the fine art of butchery and sausage making.
At Setchfield’s, homemade was the only way … From Home Cured Bacon to sausage making. The Setchfield Sausage is made using rare breed pork sourced locally. Only Yorkshire’s finest, using natural sausage skins/casing, hand mixed and linked to ensure the best finish.
We look forward to welcoming Richard to the cookery school!

Prett Tejura

Prett's passion is teaching people to cook delicious, authentic Indian food in their own homes.
Cooking has always been a way of life for Prett, inspired by her Gujarati heritage and encouraged by her mother, who shared the secrets of her culinary expertise with Prett from a very early age. For many years they have developed recipes with rich, aromatic flavours and explored together the diverse cuisines of the various unique regions of India. Now, as a mother of three herself, nothing gives her more pleasure than to pass on knowledge of Indian cookery and culture to her own children – and to you!
Since establishing Curry Cuisine over ten years ago Prett has helped many people to discover the delights of Indian food and helped them learn to prepare it in their own home.
Whether you’re a complete beginner keen to learn the basics, a home cook looking for a new challenge, all our cookery experiences are set within the context of the traditional culture and heritage that is so important to Indian food.
Prett looks forward to sharing her spicy secrets with you soon!

Fabrice Teston

Trained as a Pastry chef in the Loire Vallee (France), Fabrice Teston worked in restaurants and patisserie shops from a young age. He achieved a qualification as a Master Patissier in Chinon, where he developed his skills on fine desserts, chocolate, ice cream, viennoiseries and showpieces.
He moved to the UK in 1997, where he started working as a Head pastry chef in a Michelin starred restaurant, Hunstrete House in Bristol, before moving to Homewood Park in Bath. His career then took him up to the north of England where he worked as a Head pastry chef in Ilkley. He was also able to develop his skills by working in small bakeries in Altrincham and Huddersfield, and he then settled as a Head Pastry Chef at Bibis restaurant in the centre of Leeds.
Fabrice is now a full time Patisserie and Bakery course leader at Leeds City College, where he oversees the training of future pastry chefs as well as bakers.
He was recently a contestant on GBBO, Crème de la Crème on BBC 2, a programme aimed at professional Patissiers. His team was composed of a fellow tutor, as well as a Level 3 student. Their work ethic and enthusiasm enabled them to demonstrate the importance of training and passion for the profession.

Simon Chappelow

Simon has a passion for food and has worked at a variety of restaurants across Yorkshire, including Hazelwood Castle in York and The Calls Grill and The Wardrobe in Leeds. Foodies amongst you may also have seen him recently demonstrating dishes from his amazing repertoir on the main stage at the Yorkshire Food and Drink Show.
After realising that one of his true callings in cooking was passing his knowledge onto others, Simon started working for Zest Health for Life, as Food Projects Coordinator at The Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food. The Ministry of Food program is an 8 week cookery course to help people improve their cookery skills using fresh ingredients, discover new skills and techniques and shop affordably and sustainably. The cookery school in Leeds is now well established and in the 7 years that he has been managing the projects thousands of students, from all backgrounds, have benefited from the healthy eating cookery courses.
Simon is now busy developing our speciality classes at the Leeds Cookery School, bringing his personal knowledge in subjects such as grill cookery, sauces, pate and terrines to create an exciting and challenging set of classes. As Head Chef Simon has been able to use his extensive contacts within the Leeds culinary scene to bring together a dynamic and diverse team of experts to ensure that Leeds Cookery School offers a unique and engaging set of classes for you to enjoy.

Wayne Clarke

Wayne’s career in the food business began working as a chef in restaurants and hotels of Leeds and across the Yorkshire region. He has always had a strong passion for food with a particular interest in bread making and welcomes every opportunity to continue learning and expanding his knowledge.
As a Baker Wayne began by studying at Thomas Danby College in Leeds where he gained a Level 3 Diploma in professional bakery. Since then he has worked as an artisan baker in several bakeries that focus on the production of sourdough bread.
Alongside his work as a chef and artisan baker Wayne has taught at Jamie's Ministry of Food cookery school in Leeds city centre. His primary role there was to teach members of the community how to cook and eat healthy meals, the Jamie Oliver way. At the Ministry of Food Wayne was also responsible for co-orchestrating the Jamie Oliver masterclass program which involved more advanced recipes and cooking techniques.
As Outreach Co-Ordinator he helped and inspired a great number of people across the city to get in the kitchen and start cooking!

Andrew Thwaite

Chocolate is a way of life for Andrew Thwaite. He is never happier than when he’s working with it, talking about it, learning about it or sharing his sweet skills with other people. He understands how to make a successful business out of it just as well as he knows how to tease your taste buds with it. His passion is enriching other people’s lives with chocolate and he’s done that successfully for more than 20 years and with some of the biggest names in the chocolate industry, such as Barry Callebaut, de Zaan, Keylink and many others. During his career he’s been a manager, a strategist, a consultant and a teacher but above all he’s remained a natural-born chocolatier. His role as head chocolatier with the charity Ampleforth Plus is a culmination of all this and more, not far from the Yorkshire Dales where he was brought up.

Our space

Our modern, purpose-built training kitchen is set in a former fire engine bay, giving us a truly unique setting within The Old Fire Station; an iconic Leeds building set close to the A64 York Road in East Leeds. The recent renovation programme has kept the fire station identity and heritage alive, with many original features in place.